Taganga- Sal, si puedes or Go… if you can!

Why I spent 5 months in the small, not even really pretty village Taganga and just could not leave
and what I did in the whole time here, I will tell you now.
It is not the first time for me in Colombia and also not in Taganga. I was already in Colombia in
2021 for 4 weeks to go on vacation here. My last stop was Taganga to do some fundives. To have
to go back to Germany after four weeks made me very sad and it was foreseeable that I would
come back. When I came back to Taganga during my world trip, everything took its course. I came
for Fundives and then decided to do my Divemaster here. I had the Advanced course. To meet the
requirements for the Divemaster I had to do my Rescue course and have 40 logged dives.
After I had fulfilled the requirements, the Divemaster training started quickly. It was challenging
and fun at the same time. Every day there was something different on the program. On the one
hand the theoretical part had to be done. On the other hand different skills had to be shown and
fulfilled. These included various swimming skills under time or the search and recovery of an
object. The biggest part of the Divemaster, however, was mainly gaining experience in teaching
courses, demonstrating the different skills and the skill circuit and dealing with student divers.
Almost every day I accompanied an instructor during different courses, such as the Discover Scuba
Diving, the Refresher, the Open Water Course, an Advanced Open Water Course or the Rescue
course. At the beginning my part of the work was mainly listening. The more courses I
accompanied, the more I had the opportunity to teach parts myself, until finally I was able to teach
the theory almost completely on my own and parts of the practice, under the supervision of the
instructor. The main task of a divemaster is to guide the divers. Besides teaching, my main task at
the end of the Divemaster was to independently guide groups of certified divers. By far the
hardest part of this task for me was to orient myself underwater and navigate the right way. But
even that became easier the more experience I gained.
Of course, the Divemaster training was incredibly fun. But what really made me not want to leave
Taganga and stay for almost three more months after I finished my Divemaster are the people
here. I was welcomed by the entire team from the beginning as if I were part of the family. It
wasn’t just a professional working relationship. After work we often sat together and had a few
beers (or more), I could express my fears and thoughts regarding the Divemaster, we did activities
together, I even lived together with another instructor for almost 3 months. So not only can I leave
Colombia with my Divemaster in my pockets, I also made a lot of really good new friends. And one
thing is for sure! There will be a next time in Taganga for me!